Kasaragod: Sreedhanya Suresh, Kerala's first tribal woman to clear the UPSC Civil Services Examination, has been appointed Kasaragod District Collector, making her the first woman from a Scheduled Tribe community to head a district in the state.

Sreedhanya Suresh, a 2019-batch IAS officer who is currently Commissioner of Food Safety, has been transferred and posted as Kasaragod District Collector, according to an order issued by the state government on Friday. “I will be taking charge next week,” she told Onmanorama.

Incumbent Collector Arjun Pandian, a 2017-batch IAS officer, has been transferred and posted as Director of the Agriculture Development and Farmers Welfare Department. He will also hold the full additional charge of Additional Project Director, KERA, Registrar of Co-operative Societies and Director of Co-operative Audit. Pandian had served as Thrissur Collector before taking charge as Kasaragod Collector six months ago.

Sreedhanya’s appointment marks a historic milestone in Kerala’s civil service and adds a new chapter to the story of an officer whose own journey to the IAS began in a modest tribal settlement in Wayanad.

A member of the Kurichya Scheduled Tribe community, Sreedhanya secured an All India Rank of 410 in the UPSC Civil Services Examination in 2018. She grew up in a tribal settlement in Pozhuthana panchayat in Wayanad in a family that depended on daily-wage work.

Her father, Suresh, was a daily-wage labourer, while her mother, Kamala, took up work under the rural employment scheme. The family lived in a modest house with limited basic amenities, and electricity reached their home only a few years before Sreedhanya entered the civil services.

Yet her parents made her education their priority even when the family had very little to spare. “If our income was ₹100, my parents would set aside ₹90 for my education and use only ₹10 for household needs. If they had not shown me the way, I would never have reached the end of this journey,” Sreedhanya had said after clearing the civil services examination.

From the age of five, she walked about four kilometres to school. She scored 85% in the Class 10 examination before studying zoology at Devagiri College in Kozhikode and pursuing postgraduate studies in zoology at the University of Calicut.

Before entering the civil services, Sreedhanya worked at the Tribal Tourism Development Office in Vythiri, Wayanad. An encounter with then Mananthavady Sub-Collector Sriram Sambasiva Rao proved to be a turning point.

She had never seen a senior civil servant up close before. The respect accorded to the Sub-Collector at a public function made a deep impression on her and sparked her interest in the civil services.

Before Sreedhanya, another Keralite from a Scheduled Tribe community to enter the IAS was the late M S Joseph, who belonged to the Malai Arayan community and was a native of Pappanamcode in Thiruvananthapuram.

Joseph, who died in 2023, had served as Revenue Principal Secretary, Commissioner for Agricultural Production and Secretary of the Health Department before becoming State Election Commissioner in 2000. He resigned from the post before completing his term and subsequently contested the 2001 Assembly election from Idukki as an LDF candidate. He lost to Roshy Augustine. It is not clear whether Joseph had served as a District Collector.